Jobs Report May Offer Glimmer Of Good News

The most-anticipated economic news of the week — word about the October unemployment rate and, hopefully, how many jobs were added to payrolls last month — is due at 8:30 a.m. ET.

A month ago, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said the jobless rate in September was 9.1 percent and that 103,000 jobs were added to private and government payrolls.

Now, according to Reuters, the general consensus among economists is that the agency will say there were about 95,000 jobs added to payrolls in October and that the unemployment rate stayed at 9.1 percent.

The wire service says that would mean "employment growth ... may have been strong enough to suggest some economic momentum is building."